Wednesday, November 5, 2014

ANCHORAGE–Alaska passed Measure 2, an initiative to allowadults 21 and
over to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and up to six plants by a slim margin early this morning. This measure will establish, license and regulate retail stores,
cultivation facilities, product manufacturers and testing facilities so
consumers will always know that what they're getting is safe, will allow police
to focus on violent crime and will ensure that profits benefit the government,
not drug cartels. Driving under the influence and public consumption will remain
illegal and employers may restrict their employees’ use and localities can ban
marijuana establishments though not private possession or
cultivation.

The
other measure to legalize, regulate and control marijuana on the ballot tonight,
Measure 91 in Oregon, passed easily earlier tonight. This makes Oregon and Alaska the third and fourth states to legalize marijuana,
after Colorado and Washington and caps off a wonderful night for drug policy
reformists that included DC legalizing possession of marijuana and California
defelonizing low-level nonviolent drug possession.

SACRAMENTO–Proposition
47, the ballot measure to defelonize minor drug possession and other low-level
nonviolent crimes passed easilytonight, with the San Francisco Chronice calling the race within an hour of the polls closing, despite dismal voter turnout in the state.The initiative will treat certain
crimes as simple misdemeanors, reducing the future prison population and
authorizing resentencing for those currently incarcerated for these offenses if
they prove they are no longer a threat to public safety. The exemption is a
limited one, and will not apply to registered sex offenders or anyone with prior
convictions for child molestation, rape or murder. Savings are projected to be
in the hundreds of millions of dollars and will be redirected to K-12 programs,
victim services and mental health and drug treatment.

“This
is a win for everyone in California,” said Los Angeles Deputy Police
Chief Stephen Downing (Ret.).
“We’ll save millions keeping nonviolent drug offenders out of state prison, and
those resources will be redirected toward public education, victim services, and
mental health treatment programs that actually address the problems of
addiction.”

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Oregon’s Measure 91, to legalize, regulate and control marijuana, though predicted to be a tight race, won by a handy margin in a race called by the Oregonian early in the night. The new regulatory system will be overseen by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, in consultation with the State Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Health Authority and will allow adults over 21 to possess up to eight ounces of marijuana and grow up to four plants. DUI and public consumption will still be illegal and localities may ban marijuana businesses through ballot measures. Revenue from the measure will first go to oversight of the industry and then to schools, mental health and drug treatment services, and local and state law enforcement.

Results for Measure 2 in Alaska, the other initiative to legalize, regulate and control marijuana have yet to come in.

Washington DC – Ballot
Initiative 71, which will legalize the adult
possession of 2 ounces of marijuana and allow for home-cultivation of up to 6
plants, but not legalize sales, passed today by a wide margin. Additions to DC
tax code cannot come from a ballot initiative, meaning that retail sales will still
not be permitted. However, the D.C. Council held a public hearing last Thursday
to discuss passage of a separate bill, the Marijuana
Legalization and Regulation Act of 2013, which would implement a retail
system for marijuana sales. The passage of this bill may delay activation of
Initiative 71.

“Today the people have
spoken, and right in the shadow of the Capitol, they have stated unequivocally
that they want drug policy reform,” said Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive
director of Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition. “Tomorrow each Congressperson must choose how he or
she wants to be remembered in history: as someone who respected the people’s
wishes and worked to end one of the most pernicious problems of the 21st
Century, or as an anachronism, like those prohibitionists who refused to see
the writing on the wall in the 1930s.”

The measure will now undergo a 60-day
Congressional review period before it becomes law.This article
summarizes the possibilities for what happens from here.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is a 501(c)3
nonprofit of cops, prosecutors, judges and other law enforcement officials who
want to end the war on drugs.

Amendment
2, which would have protected patients and doctors from prosecution for
using/recommending medical marijuana for serious medical conditions, has failed
though it garnered a solid majority of votes. Covered conditions would have included
cancer, AIDS, Crohn’s Disease, Parkinson’s "or other conditions for which
a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh
the potential health risks for a patient," but would not have allowed
patients to operate a motor vehicle under the influence, consume marijuana in
public or on the job and would not have required insurers to pay for the
treatment. Unfortunately, because the initiative was for a constitutional
amendment, it needed 60% to pass and looks like it will fall just short of that
number.